Now reading
Start With Yourself
A founder's playbook on building from the inside out — equal parts memoir and manual.
Demetriee Campbell is building rooms.
Director of Operations at Embrace and BE Luxury Collection. Writing The Brief — a Sunday letter on building luxury brands from the back end. Toronto · Nassau.
The Brief
A short letter on building luxury, every Sunday.
The Brief is more than a newsletter — it's an inside look at how a Black-woman-led marketing agency builds premium brands. One operator's read on the week: a campaign worth studying, a number worth sharing, a sentence worth saving.
Free. No fluff. Unsubscribe whenever.
Latest essays
Notes from the desk.
The quiet operator.
Why I'm starting to write — and what this place is for. The case for an operator's voice in a market full of marketing influencers.
Inside a luxury brief.
A teardown of what actually goes into a $50K luxury brand engagement — the seven questions I ask before we name a price.
Why your retainer keeps shrinking.
Five contract clauses agency owners forget — and the one line that protects margin every quarter without renegotiation drama.
The room as the credential.
Why the smartest founders no longer ask for case studies — and what they ask for instead.
About
Operator first. Storyteller second.
I came up inside the agency, not in front of the camera. As Director of Operations at Embrace, I run the marketing and brand systems for luxury and real-estate clients across Toronto, Montreal, and the Bahamas.
As an operator at BE Luxury Collection, I help bring premium hospitality and lifestyle ventures to market. This is where I publish what the work actually looks like.
On the bookshelf
What she's reading.
Books worth your weekend. Updated as she finishes them.
Year of Yes
Permission to be the person you actually are at the table.
The Psychology of Money
Money is a behavior, not a math problem. Re-reading the chapter on luck and risk.
Stay True
A memoir on friendship and identity in the '90s. Quiet, beautiful, slow.
Atomic Habits
The retainers and rituals of a working life. Returned to often.
Get in touch
For brand engagements, partnerships & press.
I read everything that comes through. Replies come from Toronto or Nassau, depending on the season.
Follow along on Instagram @demetriee.c
Elsewhere